Although my first 2 albums had recurring themes and topics (“this is iii!” basically dealt in most simple and most abstract terms with medial representation of atrocities whereas “Presence Loop” was about the current state of the United States), my new album “I Am Pretty Much You” is basically an amalgam of various things and topics: cosmopolitic feelings vs. ways how to distribute things vs. silently burning west winds vs. wastelands of hot media. It is about the connection of media and pain, sound and death. References include books like “Understanding Media” by Marshall McLuhan or “White Noise” by Don DeLillo.

“I Am Pretty Much You” is a collection of various tunes, manufactured in a period from July to December 2011. I tried to capture our white noise of cultural and civilizational engineering with this record, our disorientation. Although I’m pretty sure that most of you will think of the record as the “most happy record” by me, for me this is my most depressing, gloomy and quiet record. However: most of this was created during a very happy period of my life. Yet, I somehow understand why (at least) I associate this album with those vague feelings of loss, desperation and soulless void. But there is hope. Somewhere, hidden in communication.

“I Am Pretty Much You, released in May 2012, abandons what previously made up the project’s canon, and is the best Stefanus Strom album to date……

Even the quieter sections are tense, and a pervasive forward-driven tempo disallows any kind of pause.Silence has no place here. This is all about sound as the constant changer, and death as the ultimate change. I am Pretty Much You is a frighteningly effective snapshot of both.” – Violet Currents